'Recreational' oyster farm proposed on Little Bay

DURHAM — Amid a surge in commercial aquaculture across the Great Bay region, one group is planning the first-ever recreational oyster farm.

By Casey Conleycconley@fosters.com

DURHAM — Amid a surge in commercial aquaculture across the Great Bay region, one group is planning the first-ever recreational oyster farm.

Joe King's Oyster Cooperative plans to grow American oysters in a one-acre plot north of Adams Point in Durham. Its owners plan to eat oysters they produce instead of selling them.

“We are basically four or five guys on a basketball team who decided to do this together as a fun project because several of us love eating oysters and we tend to like each other's company,” said Ralph Jimenez, 66, of Concord, who is a principal in the oyster cooperative.

The proposal is one of two coming before the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department for review on Feb. 11. The meeting will be held at the agency's Durham office.

Bayside Oysters Farm LLC, which would operate on about 2.5-acres in waters off Newington, is the other. University of New Hampshire graduate student Jonathan Bunker plans to produce American oyster and possibly hard and soft-shell clams at the site, according to his application. Attempts to reach him for comment were not successful.

If approved, the two producers would join eight oyster farms in the region and six operations licensed to raise sea urchins, mussels and other marine species, according to Bruce Smith, a N.H. Fish and Game marine biologist.

While the concept of a recreational oyster farm is unique, “The license they seek is the same as all other oyster aquaculture operations,” Smith said. “Should they want to sell at some future date, it would not require much to modify the existing one.”

Oyster farmers usually start with thousands of seed oysters from certified hatcheries that are no bigger than a fingernail. The baby oysters, known as spat, are loaded into mesh bags and enclosed in metal cages that keep predators out. Oysters typically need two or three years to mature.

Kristin Ward, a University of New Hampshire researcher who operates an oyster farm near Durham, said most seed oysters never reach maturity. In a typical year, about half will die. Occasionally, disease will wipe out an entire operation.

“You can start out with 100,000 oysters and you probably won't have 50,000 by your second year, and in your third year, you will have half of that,” said Ward, who has helped the Joe King group develop its plans.

Maintaining the oyster farm requires a lot of work. Ray Grizzle, a UNH biology who also operates a commercial oyster farm, said the oysters must be cleaned regularly and transferred every so often into different bags. Dead ones also must be removed.

Even so, there has been a surge in commercial aquaculture operations in the Great Bay region. Since 2011, the state has issued seven aquaculture licenses, Smith said.

Part of that interest stems from what he calls “oyster mathematics.” By that, he means the low cost for each baby oyster and the significantly higher market price — up to 70 cents each — for mature oysters a couple years later.

“They know they can buy them for less than a penny apiece, get to market, and get as much as 60 to 70 cents apiece for them without full consideration for oyster mortality and the work that goes into it,” he said.

Despite these challenges, oyster farming is taking off across the Northeast.

“It's a rapidly-emerging industry not only in this state but all the way down from the mid-Atlantic north,” he said. “Oyster farming has really grown in the last 10 years, but in New Hampshire it's been in the last three years.”

Oysters grown in the Great Bay's cold waters are starting to appear on restaurant menus. While they are something of a novelty now, Grizzle predicts New Hampshire oysters will ultimately become mainstream.

The surge in aquaculture on the Great Bay also could have a positive effect on the environment. Oysters feed on plankton, and in the process they help remove excess nutrients such as nitrogen from the Great Bay.

“One farm is not going to clear up the bay, but dozens of them will have a measurable impact,” Grizzle said.

These ecological benefits appealed to Jimenez, who works as an editorial writer for the Concord Monitor, and other members of the Joe King cooperative. The group is apparently the first group to ask the state for a recreational license, Jimenez said.

While some in the group have observed others tending to oyster farms, they have almost no experience themselves. Like any good hobby, they expect to learn as they go.

“Were so less than experts,” said Ken Potter, 56 of Portsmouth, who is another principal in the cooperative. So far anyway, he said the effort has been a lot of fun. They're open to getting help from others interested in pitching in.

At first anyway, the group will focus only on oysters. They're planning to eat what they grow. But if the operation takes off, they'll find other good uses such as benefit fundraisers.

“If we get thousands of oysters and we tried to eat all of them, we'd probably all get gout,” Jimenez said. “We decided to cross that bridge if we ever got to it.”